An article on 24/7 says that while Rhule contemplates this job, we are looking at Monken and Leipold harder. I think Leipold is the best fit for this job as of right now. He started the season 5-0.
I would prefer Urban Meyer as well, but don't see that happening. Outside of Meyer, the rest are all the same risks and rewards. We can all think that Kiffin or Sanders or Fickell would be great here, but in all honestly, they are all risks.
The worst thing that happened in the last 10 years is the U of Neb, let things slide way to far down. This started with Pelini and ended now with Frost. Our rosters started falling down during Pelini's last two season and Riley did not upgrade, and frankly Frost might have even taken it down even further.
So this next hire should be able to start from scratch and rebuild the roster, staff and recruiting base. We need some man sized recruiters to come in here. We need to have some relationships that need mended in states with High School coaches. We need to have alot things roll our way. I think we are right now looking at a program that should be able to get 7-8 wins each season. I think we need to let that happen, and on occasion win 9-10. The last is going to be hard with Big 10 scheduling. Now with USC and UCLA being added, this puts two more programs ahead of us right now.
Penn ST, Michigan, Ohio ST, USC and UCLA are ahead of us in talent. Thats 5 schools. We know that Maryland looks good on and off and is talented. Illinois is talented. When you start to look at the pecking order as of right now, we are down the line. Don't care what recruiting rankings say, eye ball test tells you that these teams are more talented and experienced.
Regardless of all this who should be or shouldn't be talk, at this point a warm body that can talk and walk is going to make me happy. For the record, I thought that Mickey should be retained, but the more time goes by I am starting to think that this whole thing needs blown up and restarted from the bottom.